Premiered at the 2023 SXSW Festival in Austin, Texas, this film got a very limited theatrical release over the summer. Director and co-writer Luke Gilford is a photographer from Denver, Colorado. Gilford made a career documenting and working with transgender female models. His father is a former rodeo champion, which is probably a part of the reason that Gilford's signature work is a photography book about queer rodeos. This film is arguably an adaptation of that book or inspired by it. Gilford has done a lot with members of the International Gay Rodeo Association (IGRA), which also is a part of the reason why Gilford did this film.
Unfortunately, this film isn't really about IGRA or gay rodeos. There's two scenes or so that involve gay rodeo events, but the majority of Gilford's narrative has nothing to do with gay rodeo or what might be known as LGBTQ rodeo. The protagonist here doesn't even have much interest in the rodeo. The rodeo is very incidental to this story. If anything, this film is more about doing drag, which is part of the IGRA, but the drag scenes here aren't couched within IGRA events. Again, the drag scenes feel incidental.
Charlie Plummer (All the Money in the World and Lean on Pete) stars as Dylan, a 21-year-old living in New Mexico with his single mother and little brother. They are very poor. They live in a one-bedroom shack. Dylan sleeps on the couch in the front room. He has no friends. He has no privacy. All his time is spent trying to find work. He does odd jobs at stores here and there. He also does construction gigs, often waiting with Latino day laborers. His goal is to buy a RV or camper and hit the road, getting out of his small town and away from his mother. He has no interest in rodeo, at least not initially, even though he does wear a cowboy hat and jeans seemingly everyday.
Eve Lindley (Bros and After Yang) co-stars as Sky, a Latin, transgender woman who works as a horse trainer at a ranch called House of Splendor. She also is a participant in gay rodeos and possibly is a member of the IGRA. However, that aspect is put in the background. She's more introduced and viewed as the love interest for Dylan. She's more of an instrument to help him realize his queer identity. Like most mainstream narratives about the LGBTQ community or even Generation Z, this film ignores the advent of the Internet.
We never even see Dylan with a cell phone or any kind of mobile device. We don't see a lot of modern technology, which is likely the point. Gilford likely wanted a timeless quality to this film or emphasize the poverty of Dylan or probably how a lot of IGRA members prefer a rugged and rustic lifestyle where it's less about tech and more about nature. Most indications is that this film is set in the present-day and getting a cheap cell phone from Wal-Mart or someplace would not be beyond Dylan, so realizing his queer identity feels like something he would've already done. Maybe he has, but this film makes it all feel like one big discovery.
Dylan comes to work as a farmhand at House of Splendor and he clearly has an attraction to Sky. It's not clear if Dylan even realizes that Sky is transgender. Yet, it doesn't matter. It's quickly revealed that Sky has a boyfriend named Pepe, played by Rene Rosado (The Conners and Major Crimes), a Mexico bull rider and possibly the owner of House of Splendor. Sky and Pepe are in an open relationship and are poly-amorous. Sky seems more poly-amorous than Pepe who gets more jealous because Sky is clearly falling in love with Dylan, as Dylan is obviously in love with Sky. Why she's falling for him is never fully understood. Yet, Dylan seems ready to be involved with both Sky and Pepe at once. The conflict is Pepe might not mind a threesome with Dylan, but Pepe isn't in love with Dylan and doesn't want to be. What could have been an exploration of polyamory instead becomes a contentious love triangle.
The film could have been about the emotional perils of polyamory, but Gilford never really digs into the relationship between Sky and Pepe. What are the rules of their polyamory? What is their history and how did they decide on it? What is either of them getting out of it? Gilford doesn't answer any of these questions or fill out their dynamics. Rodney Evans' The Happy Sad (2014) does a better job of digging into an open relationship and showing us the conversations to be had. This film doesn't have those conversations. This film is told exclusively through Dylan's point-of-view, so I get why we wouldn't see those conversations between Sky and Pepe. Yet, we don't get those conversations between Dylan and anyone else either. Dylan is notably not that verbal, which is an easy and lazy character-trait that Gilford has given him to skirt those conversations. However, if you're going to introduce polyamory, why not dig into it? Why instead wander off with a character like Dylan who isn't that interesting at all?
Mason Alexander Park (Quantum Leap and The Sandman) also co-stars as Carrie, a non-binary person who befriends Dylan. Carrie does try to have conversations with Dylan but those conversations are cursory and don't provide much insight into Sky and Pepe's relationship beyond what is superficially depicted. Carrie is a drag performer and one would think, if anything, Carrie would discuss the role of drag within the IGRA and within rodeo, which is traditionally a very masculine culture. However, when it comes to rodeo, not much attention is paid to the rodeo events, which are fundamental to its culture. We instead get a quasi-poly-amorous relationship that feels one-sided and not explored with any depth.
Rated R for sexual content, graphic nudity, language and some drug use.
Running Time: 1 hr. and 39 mins.
Available on VOD.